Now to Farming

One year ago this past December, Joe and I decided we wanted to move to FinnRiver for the 2010 growing season. We didn’t come to this decision by spinning our antique globe that hangs upside down from our ceiling and happening to place our finger on Chimacum, Washington. No, it’s not quite that exotic.

To trace the path that lead us to FinnRiver, I’ll begin with the day after Thanksgiving 2005. Joe and I had met in July of that year, and began our partnership in October. While camping and fasting in the Olympics of Washington we celebrated Buy Nothing Day (the day after Thanksgiving) with a sunny hike along the Ozette coast. We decided to a fun challenge of seeing how many days in the month of December we could ‘Buy Nothing.’ After the December challenge, we had a January of no packaging. And in March while we were on a bus traveling through Mexico, I suggested that when we returned to the US we try a year of eating locally. In March of 2006, the only folks we had ever heard of doing this was the couple in British Columbia, Canada. We soon learned we were among many trying out this challenge.

Our two plus years of eating within a day’s drive led us to working on farms in exchange for our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares. In 2007 when we moved from Colorado to Washington, FinnRiver was our third work-trade farm.

While we transitioned away from a 100% local diet, we dug ourselves deeper into growing food. We became quite fond of FinnRiver and the folks that farm it. And while we lived in Seattle for the past two years, we visited quite frequently. Joe and I discussed wanting to farm with our friends here, and each time we decided it didn’t make sense. But finally we decided it actually did make sense and it was truly what we wanted to do. So, our public health and community education careers can wait. And in the meantime our connections to the meanings of health, community, and education will be nourished.

So this week we started pruning the blueberry field. We will do this for 3-4 weeks, all day everyday, until each of the 2,000+ bushes has been given our attention.

I’ve been thinking constantly about the words to describe why I’m here, and I hope to continue sharing those with you each week while I discover them. I hope to have something new here each Monday by lunchtime.

What’s brewing in my mind this week: new mythology and optimism.